Council talks about former OC manager

OCEAN CITY -- Council members ended their silence on why they voted former City Manager Dennis Dare out of his job, revealing dissatisfaction with his performance over a period of time.

"I lost my confidence in Dennis," said Council President Jim Hall to a standing-room-only Council Chamber during a meeting. "It wasn't one incident. There is no dirty laundry to air out here and no straw that broke the camel's back."

Hall and Councilwoman Margaret Pillas said there were times when they felt Dare hadn't fulfilled his responsibility to present complete information about government operations to all of the council members. They voted along with Joe Hall and Brent Ashley in a Sept. 8 closed meeting to remove Dare. Lloyd Martin, Doug Cymek and Mary Knight voted against the decision.

Pillas said there were times when she'd asked Dare for information that she didn't end up getting, resulting in her decision to abstain from certain votes due to a lack of knowledge. She said there had been occasions in which she had placed votes without having enough information and that she would take those votes back if she could.

Joe Hall said he and Dare had disagreed on the way the municipal government should be run, and Ashley said he preferred not to get into specifics.

Dare, reached by phone, declined to comment Tuesday.

Joe Hall said the financial health of the town was another factor, an assertion Mayor Rick Meehan took exception to. Meehan said there had been a series of ordinances passed by the majority that would have cost the town $1.5 million this year, if not for a mayoral veto. He pointed out also that the council had opted against a choice when changing retirement benefit plans that would have saved the town another $1.5 million.

Martin said in his experience, whenever he had a question for Dare or any other town staff member, he got it, and called Dare's removal "a total injustice." His statement was greeted with applause from the crowd.

The council has entered discussions behind closed doors pertaining to finding a replacement for Dare.

In a closed meeting before Monday night's regular meeting, Knight made a motion to begin a nationwide search for a new city manager. Cymek and Martin voted in favor of the motion, which was voted down 4-3. After the vote, Knight and Cymek left the closed meeting, and said Martin would have as well if he didn't have an obligation as council secretary to stay.

Knight said the council members who remained in the meeting spoke then with a potential city manager replacement. Longtime Public Works Director Hal Adkins joined the closed session for a discussion during which no action was taken, Jim Hall reported.

When asked Tuesday whether he would have interest in becoming city manager, Adkins said that Dare was aware he aspired to the city manager position when Dare chose to retire on his own. Adkins wrote he had felt the opportunity would present itself in three to five years.

If a national search was conducted, Adkins said he would consider applying for the position in competition with the other applicants the process would generate.

"Let me be crystal clear that, as part of the evolution of the interviewing process and the local reaction that will naturally surface at that time, I would want assurance that the citizens, business community and full-time staff of the town of Ocean City, that I have served for the last 27 (plus) years, were in support of me holding the position," Adkins wrote. "If they were not, I will gladly continue my role as Public Works director and provide the levels of service that our community has grown to expect. ... I work for the people of this town."

Numerous residents expressed disdain during the meeting that the council wouldn't consider a nationwide search, and Knight said she hopes the majority will reconsider.

Meehan said he thinks the council should have a "cooling off period" to evaluate the situation. He acknowledged there are internal employees who would make good candidates, and that he hopes they apply for the position.

"I just think there shouldn't be a shotgun decision like the one that was just made," Meehan said in an interview after Monday's meeting.

Meehan is serving as interim city manager, a fact he made several jokes about Monday night.

The council majority has been heavily criticized since Dare's removal, and Jim Hall said the criticism directed toward him has been warranted. Much of it has come from a group who has rallied under the name Citizens for the Preservation of O.C. The group organized mainly on Facebook, and many members were present for Monday night's meeting.

Joe Groves, a spokesman for the group, challenged Joe Hall to lead the council, and for the members to work as a team. The council's resemblance to the nation's often divisive government is not beneficial for Ocean City or its residents, he said.

"I think you've awakened a sleeping giant, and each of you think it'll go away in a couple of weeks," Groves said of the group and others who are upset with council's actions. "That's not the case. It's not gonna go away this time."

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Tornado whips through Ocean City

A condominium building on 75th Street in Ocean City sustained damage during a tornado, which first touched down around 77th Street. / THOMAS MELVILLE/DELAWARE WAVE

OCEAN CITY -- A tornado careened across Ocean City in the 75th Street area, damaging buildings and blowing out the glass windows of cars.

A slew of witnesses said they saw a funnel cloud come sweeping into the resort from the Assawoman Bay around 77th Street, where it touched down briefly before rising again and continuing south across the beach.

Ryan Haley saw the tornado coming from the west toward his business, Atlantic Shore Realty on Coastal Highway's ocean side at 75th Street. He was filming the cloud with his cellphone at first but he retreated inside to hunker down when it came close to the building.

Haley said it "went crazy" for about 10 seconds and that he could hear things crashing around outside.
Surveying the damage afterward, windows were broken on his building and on both the vehicles parked in front of it. Debris riddled the parking lot and the streets nearby. Town staff were working with a backhoe to clear a few trees from Coastal Highway's median that had fallen to the street. Other debris, including a mattress, had blown onto the road as well.

The cloud was unofficially called a tornado by Accuweather meteorologist Frank Strait.

"It started out as a waterspout, which is basically a tornado over water, and if it touched down on land, then it's classified as a tornado," he said.

The National Weather Service later confirmed that the funnel cloud was a tornado.

Police had cordoned off most of the ocean side of 75th Street, where there was extensive damage to the outside of some buildings. Siding and parts of roofs had been blown off multiple condo complexes, and the 75th Street Medical Center's sign was nearly obliterated. A good portion of the roof of the Ocean Villas condos was blown onto the beach below.

Ocean City Town Councilman Doug Cymek said he'd heard most of the damage was located in that area. He and Ocean City Director of Emergency Services Joe Theobald were at the scene shortly after the event, which took place at about 3:45 p.m.

No injuries had been reported, and to Theobald's knowledge, the tornado only touched down in the damaged area, he said.

Theobald's strategy for post-storm management was simple: "We make sure nobody's hurt, and then we start putting it back together again," he said.

At 75th Street Medical, the staff saw it coming and quickly moved a handful of patients inside to an X-ray room, said radiology technician Jessica Slower.

"Oh my god, that was freaky," said 75th Street Medical receptionist Shelly Highsmith. "It came pretty quick and it stopped pretty quick. It blew me up the steps and into the building."

Dan Hillegas and Chris Bright were riding their motorcycles southbound on Coastal Highway when they saw the cloud and felt the wind.

"We were almost in it," Bright said.

Hillegas said they saw it touch down and sweep across the highway. One of their friends had been so overwhelmed by wind she had been knocked off her motorcycle.

Donna Starr and George Abell were riding a bus north at about 65th Street when she heard reports of a funnel cloud come across the driver's radio.

"It got extremely dark and windy first," Starr said, before she saw the cloud. "I was just sitting there, dazed. There wasn't much we could do."

"It was freakin' huge," Abell added.

The tornado was formed under atypical circumstances and was an isolated incident, he said. It was an "unusual situation" for a tornado to touch down in the area at that time, he said.

Tornadoes are typically formed when there a large amount of wind shear -- the change in speed or direction of wind over a short distance or time period -- is present.

The atmosphere was a "little unstable" Thursday, with a combination of warm weather and an incoming cold front, which could have caused enough churning in the atmosphere to create a tornado, Strait said.

"It wouldn't have been a classic tornado superstorm like you often see in the plains area, but that cold front could have caused it," he said.

The trajectory of the cloud wasn't immediately apparent, but Doug Antos and other residents who live on 62nd Street said they'd seen a funnel cloud in that area.

"You could see it swirling around," Antos said, adding that power in the area had abruptly gone out moments before he saw it.

Mike Terveer was visiting from Baltimore, staying at a condo at the Sandpiper along the 75th Street ocean block when he saw the clouds swirling over the bay, and thought, "That ain't good."

"It definitely sounds like a freight train, like they say," he said. "Stuff just flying everywhere. It's kind of cool, actually, as long as nobody got hurt. It's been a hell of a summer -- earthquakes, hurricanes."

-- Staff Writer Brian Shane contributed to this report.

A divided OC council votes to remove Dare

OCEAN CITY -- Dennis Dare's tenure as city manager ended Friday at the request of a slim majority of the Ocean City Council, who met to make the decision to remove him in two closed-door meetings.

Councilman Jim Hall said the council voted 4-3 Thursday afternoon to ask for Dare to resign his position by the end of business Friday. Dare had held the position since 1990. Voting to remove Dare were Joe Hall, Jim Hall, Margaret Pillas and Brent Ashley, a majority bloc that's carried several votes since the 2010 election. Voting to keep him were Doug Cymek, Mary Knight and Lloyd Martin.

The council reconvened for another meeting Friday morning, and members moved to go into closed session again. But Knight, Cymek and Mayor Rick Meehan protested the minutes of the Thursday afternoon meeting had to be approved first, and when that didn't happen, those three refused to leave council chambers to attend the closed session in another room. Martin said he would have refused as well if it wasn't his duty as council secretary to record the session.

"The vote should have been reported to the public," Meehan said.

Knight and Cymek said they did not join the closed session partially because City Solicitor Guy Ayres was not present. Jim Hall had told them Ayres would be in attendance, they said, adding they were uncomfortable proceeding without him the day before. Jim Hall disputed those claims, and said Ayres was out of town, unable to attend.

"I was told there was going to be legal counsel here this morning, and that's the only reason I'm here," said Knight while she waited for the closed session to end. Cymek said Jim Hall lied by saying he hadn't told them Ayres would be there.

In their absence, the remaining councilmembers voted to fire Dare if his resignation letter wasn't filed by the end of the business day. After that closed session ended, the council re-entered open session, and Jim Hall explained what votes had been taken in the past 24 hours to a crowd of about 40 residents and reporters.

Jim Hall said it was a tough decision, but the council majority wants Dare replaced because "it's time to take the town in a new direction." He, Joe Hall, Pillas and Ashley declined to comment on any specifics pertaining to the direction.

Dare declined to comment for this story, town spokeswoman Donna Abbott said.

Ocean City's code gives the council sole authority to hire and fire city managers, the town attorney, its clerk and its auditor -- and to establish a municpal orchestra or suppress "bawdy houses," among a long list of other specified powers. The mayor has a vote in the hiring of police chiefs, but not city managers, although the mayor is the acting city manager in case of a vacancy.

Jim Hall said Dare had done a "wonderful, wonderful" job for the town, and after the meeting said they want to give him an unqualified recommendation for whatever his next career move, if any, might be. Jim Hall and Ashley said the decision hadn't been made for budgetary reasons.

Dare follows the direction of the mayor and council, and those elected positions are where change should come from, said Meehan.

Knight and Martin both referred to Dare as an "extremely good city manager," citing his ability to help generate budgets for the town during a lengthy recession, and his help in funding the multimillion-dollar Boardwalk reconstruction project without raising tax rates for the fiscal year 2012.

"I mean, I've got an amazing wife and two great kids. I'm not going to try and change that just because there might possibly be someone better out there," Martin said in an interview after the meeting. While in the closed session, he said, the only thing he voted "yes" for was to end it, saying it was "sick." He said there hadn't been any specific explanation for the ousting of Dare.

Knight said he's upset and concerned for the future of the town in light of the seniority and knowledge it's losing in key positions. The town offered buyouts in 2010 to employees who were eligible for retirement and had not yet done so.

In exchange for his resignation, the council majority said they would pay Dare through Dec. 31 of this year and honor any of his benefits, including a full 30-year retirement package and health pension, Jim Hall said.

Dare was operating on a yearly contract with the town which was renewed automatically in April. Jim Hall said they would honor it "and pay accordingly" in the event of a firing.

The contract would have allowed Dare to be paid his salary in full for 120 days after the contract's termination, but he would not have received the retirement package.

Several residents showed up to wait out the closed session, and many of them voiced disdain with council's decision to conduct such business away from the public. Maryland's laws permit town councils to discuss personnel matters behind closed doors if they like, but doing so in open session is also allowed.

"What you're doing in closed government won't bode well for the future election of some council members," Leonard Berger, the owner of Clarion Hotel and Fontainebleau Resort, said to council before they went into the second closed session. The crowd applauded his comment.

After Dare's removal, a meeting was planned by a group of residents to be held at 10 a.m. Sept. 26 at the Clarion Hotel. They've been publicizing the meeting mostly on Facebook, through a group called "Citizens for the Preservation of our Town of Ocean City Community." John Murphy, one of the group's administrators, said it had been formed when some residents had opposed council decisions they felt were being discussed too heavily behind closed doors.

"Our argument is not over whether a city manager should've been fired or not fired. We just want to make sure the people of this town are being heard," said meeting organizer Joe Groves.

Jim Hall said Ayres advised him he did not have to report on Thursday's closed-door session before entering another, since it was "a continuation" of the first meeting.

Meehan disputed this, saying Ayres had told him council was legally obligated to inform the public of the vote that took place.

Maryland law states that at any open meeting subsequent to a closed meeting, the minutes must include "a listing of the topics of discussion, persons present and each action taken during the session."

Meehan said he hadn't been told about Friday morning's meeting. He found out about it, he said, by browsing Facebook. Interim City Clerk Wayne Pryor said he'd been officially informed about the meeting Friday morning, and his office then faxed notices to the media.